It's been a little slow in the shop with Christmas happening in the middle of the week. Nevertheless, I've got the Baidarka almost finished being re-varnished. It required a repair tot he forward cockpit coaming, a thorough sanding of the deck and the hull.

Of course, nothing ever goes so smoothly, my old reliable Porter-Cable sander bit the dust when I had only 1/4 of the hull left to sand. I love these sanders because I work them hard and the do a great job, but after awhile some of the parts simply wear out. This time it was the spindle that keeps the sander head attached to the main body. Its just about closing time Monday, and I need to finish so that I can start varnishing, so I drive into the city, deal with rush hour traffic, only to find that the store has moved. I have a half hour left before closing, I call them up to find out where they've gone to, but there is no way that I can get there in time, and the fellow on the line wasn't inclined to wait for me. So I stopped in a Home Depot and picked up a little Ryobi, which ois good enough to see me through. Its a great little sander for $40, but it won't stand up to the demands that I will put it to.

I got the two little guitars that I'm building for my daughters closed. There's still a lot of work left to do, but now they are starting to look like guitars!

They already knew that these were coming, so it was hardly worth wrapping them, but a nice bow really sets them off.

Future guitar heroes? Who knows...they've both been studying music for years and now specialize in voice studies. Every singer should at lease be able to lay a little guitar.

The bodies are of Ash, and the wood came from a tree that was growing in my In-law's back yard. My Mother-in-law passed away last February, of pancreatic cancer, and these will be great souvenirs of the time spent with her. The guitar on the right has a veneer inlay in a geometric pattern, the one on the left will have a black line art vine.

A close up of the rosettes.

And finally, ever since I was a little kid of about 10, I've wanted an electric guitar. Well, one thing lead to another, and I never did get one. So now, after 35 years, I bought my first amp! So now I have now excuse to build an electric guitar. My first will be a good old Telecaster style and I'm already saving my pennies for the parts. The amp I chose is a VOX Valevetronix AD15VT. Its a modeling amp that runs a 12AX7 tube in the power stage so that you get that good tube amp sound that is so desirable. I'm really looking forward to plugging this thing in and rocking!

But for now its sitting very quietly in the living room, waiting...